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- The communications department has told parliament that it plans to go ahead with controversial new proposals that would require international streaming services like Netflix to charge license fees.
- It also wants at least 30% of all programs broadcast in South Africa to be produced locally.
- It has already received 20,000 comments on its planned proposals.
- For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
International streaming services like Netflix, Apple +, Showmax, and Amazon Prime will have to pay license fees in South Africa in the future, and may also have to ensure that 30% of their content offered here is produced locally. .
On Wednesday, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies confirmed these planned interventions in a presentation to parliament on a new draft white paper for the broadcasting industry.
Last month, the government sparked public outrage when Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams alluded to a proposal that would see Netflix and Multichoice collect streaming license fees, to be paid to SABC, from their users.
This unpopular proposal is intended to shore up SABC, which suffered a loss of more than 500 million rand last year.
On Wednesday, the department confirmed to the Communications Portfolio Committee that it had already received 20,000 comments on its proposals.
But the department told the committee that it plans to move forward to amend its definition of “streaming services” in South Africa to include Netflix, Apple +, Showmax and Amazon Prime, and subject those platforms to license fees.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will be tasked with determining these rates and keeping in mind non-compliant international services. This includes establishing a team, which would work closely with South African banks, to stop subscription payments to uncooperative service providers.
In addition to international rates, the government proposes that at least 30% of all content broadcast in South Africa must be produced locally.
“These video-on-demand subscription services, when they come and operate in South Africa, everything they show to South Africans in terms of their catalog, 30% of that catalog should include South African content,” says Collin Mashile, CEO of Policy of Broadcasting in the Department of Communications. “In all countries, the most popular shows are still local shows.”
As part of the presentation to parliament, Mashile admitted that the new regulations would give SABC the opportunity to take back part of the South African market and give the state broadcaster a better competitive advantage.
However, implementation of these regulatory proposals will be difficult. According to the district attorney’s Phumzile Van Damme, the government’s campaign to collect license fees for international services, which will inevitably be paid by the local viewer, will end in fruitless litigation.
“This China-style ‘censorship office’ constitutes a clear violation of the right of all South Africans to a free flow of information and would not meet the constitutional standard of limitation of this right by the government,” Van Damme said during the committee meeting regarding the department’s proposal to stop payments to broadcasting services.
It was announced that the public comment process, which was initially due to end on October 30, had been extended to February 15, 2021, and comments on the draft white paper can be mailed to [email protected]
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